Dog holes

[Matt1245]

Hello, here i am, pinching tips again.

The ply for the top of my workbench is cut to size now, but before i start glueing and screwing the beast together i was looking for advise on where to place my dog holes. I'm gonna have a face and tail vise, but don't want to be putting screws where i need to drill for my dogs.

Can anyone suggest good spacings, distance from edge etc to plae the holes?

Thanks.

Matt.

 

[MikeW]

Hi Matt,

Which kind of dogs are you using: round or square/rectangular?

In any case, here are two resources:

Information and general drool producer:
http://www.workbenchdesign.net/index.html

Downloadable plan. Should have in the cad drawing his spacing. General good ideas as well:
http://pages.friendlycity.net/~krucker/Bench/index.htm

 

[Alf]

Matt, you've perused BugBear's workbench link farm I trust? His bench top is layers of ply, now I come to think about it. In fact I think I'll just move this thread over to Hand Tools 'cos you'll get more attention from the neanders who know that way.

Cheers, Alf

 

[AndyBoyd]

The distance between the dogs needs to be less than the maximum extension of the vice where the moving dog is housed (minus the wide of the dog), on mine that's about 25 cm

 

[Matt1245]

Thanks for the advise guys.

Just spent ages looking for this topic in the general woodwork section....you little tinker Alf :lol:

Yeah had a look at bugbears web site a few times, originally looking on there for info on my tiny recored planes.

No doubt when i start to use my bench i'll find that i'll need dog holes where i havn't put them. Probably end up looking like a piece of cheese

Matt

 

[Alf]

Sorry 'bout that, but at least it keeps you on your toes.

It's a subject that pops up quite often; a couple of threads on WoodCentral here and here, for instance. I picked that particular post on the second thread 'cos I think the idea of unequal spacing might be a good one. I know having equal spacing on my bench is a PITA sometimes.

Cheers, Alf

 

[AndyBoyd]

There are many things - well a few anyway - about my bench that irritate me, but even dog hole spacings have never given me any issues, what makes them PITA bread for you Alf?

I'm curious as I've nearly finialised my new bench design and it has even dogs - but there is still time to change!

 

[SlimShavings]

Heres a link to a guys bench and pictures of his dog holes.

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/hand ... read=71502

http://www.woodcentral.com is a good website specially the handtools side. Lot of good people on there.
But for me the People across the pond are easier to make friends with :lol: :lol:

 

[Frank D.]

And there's Dean's bench also:

http://woodcentral.com.ldh0138.uslec.net/cgi-bin/archives_handtools.pl?read=61224

What an amazing bench!

PS I just realized he hardly has any dog holes at all (he has no tail vice) and they're not entirely visible from the pics, but still I think it's a good example of how little you can get away with.

 

[Alf]

what makes them PITA bread for you Alf?

Probably the tail vice, I think. It's rather stiff so skipping in and out to get the right hole spacing is tedious. It also always seems to work out that I need to go from maximum opening to minimum all the time. :roll: It seems to me, with unequal holes, you should be able to avoid having too great a gap over the open vice for the work to bridge too, but I haven't actually checked. As it is I find myself fishing round in the scraps bin for shims and spacers half the time; which works, but it all takes time. I'd like to blame it on having bought a bench rather than building one, but the truth is I'd probably have ended up with the same equal spacing and a non-working tail vice instead. :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[bugbear]

The secret is to have a tail vice with 2 (or more) dog holes.

If (e.g.) you tail vice has 8" of travel, I would recommend having your bench dog holes spaced just under 8" apart - say 7".

However, I would then recommend having 2 dog holes on the tail vice, spaced 3 1/2" apart in this example.

You can then achive a +- 3 1/2" inch motion by simply switching dog holes on the tail vice, saving much handle twirling.

BugBear

 

[Alf]

Ooops, sloppy wording on my part. I should have said maximum and minimum distance between dog holes, rather than opening. #-o I do have multiple tail vice dog holes. In fact the more I look at it from the theoretical POV, the more I wonder why it's proving to be a pain in real life. :?

Cheers, Alf